1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of apparatus for holding objects; more particularly, the invention is in the field of deformable apparatus for holding objects by the application of fluid-pressure differential.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Some examples of vapors which may be used to sterilize objects and materials are steam, formaldehyde, and ethylene oxide. It is important not only to generate maximum concentrations of bactericidal chemicals in the vicinity of the surfaces, but also to raise their temperatures to the maximum that can be tolerated in as short a time as possible. This is because the inactivation of micro-organisms is basically a chemical reaction, the speed of which is generally increased in marked fashion by an increase in temperature. In most cases, the configuration of the object being treated assures that the sterilizing atmosphere will contact all surfaces, rendering the entire object sterile. However, even with objects whose contaminated surfaces are readily accessible to the sterilizing atmosphere, a great many precautions must be taken to assure sterilization. These precautions include, e.g., the removal of air from the sterilizer chamber to as great a degree as possible or practical, provision of packaging materials permeable to the sterilizing agent, and arrangement of packaged goods to facilitate contact of sterilizing agent. Such requirements are well known to those skilled in the art of sterilization, and will not be repeated here.
Efforts are made in designing new objects to make it easy for sterilizing vapors to contact, diffuse, permeate or penetrate to, all the internal as well as the external contaminated sites. However, due to their purpose and nature, some medical devices necessarily contain very long and narrow tubules requiring heating and penetration by sterilizing vapors, which must also contact all of the exterior surfaces of the device. Some examples of such devices are catheters and endoscopic instruments.
Some endoscopes contain one or more hollow tubes one millimeter (mm) in diameter and approximately 3600 mm long, whose interiors become contaminated and thus require sterilization. Simply releasing sterilant vapor into a chamber containing a contaminated object of this type does not replace the air contained in the tubule with enough vapor to effect the desired end in a short enough time to be considered practical.
Many sterilizers using vapors have as a preliminary step the removal of much of the chamber air which is then replaced with sterilizing vapor. One such method is described by McDonald in U.S. Pat. No. 3,068,064. However, even this process does not produce, throughout the lumen of the tubule, a high enough concentration of sterilant at a sufficiently high temperature to accomplish the desired end, although the exterior surfaces are effectively sterlized.